Gonzalo Lira

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gonzalo Lira

Gonzalo Lira in 2005
Born February 29, 1968
Burbank, California
Occupation Novelist, Film Director
Nationality Chilean American
Writing period 1998 to present
Genres Action thriller

Gonzalo Lira (born February 29, 1968, in Burbank, California) is an American novelist and filmmaker.

The child of Gonzalo and Isabel Lira, he grew up in the San Fernando Valley, New York, and Miami, as well as Guayaquil, Ecuador, before completing high school at St. George’s College in Santiago, Chile, in 1985. After working as an English teacher for several years and travelling throughout South America, he attended Dartmouth College in 1991, graduating with honors in 1995, with a degree in history and philosophy. He is a descendant of José Miguel Carrera, the first president of Chile.

On graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, where he unsuccessfully pursued a career in television writing before turning to fiction. His first novel, a commercial thriller, Counterparts, was published in 1997. His first Spanish language novel, a highly experimental coming-of-age story, Tomáh Errázurih, was published in 1998.

After moving to lower Manhattan in 1998, Lira wrote, produced and directed a comic short film, So Kinky, before writing his next book, Acrobat (2002). The novel was subsequently purchased by Miramax, to be turned into a motion picture. In 2002, Lira moved to Chile, to begin writing and producing Spanish language feature films. In 2006, Lira completed the film Catalina’s Kidnapping, a Spanish-language thriller.

[edit] Novels